I'm really disappointed

The official history book Romance of the Three Kingdoms, written by Chen Shou of the Western Jin Dynasty and supplemented by Pei Songzhi of the Southern Song Dynasty in search of Zhou, and the historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which is considered to be the work of the 14th-century novelist Luo Guanzhong, must be clearly distinguished.

Because the writing period is different (the one written by Chen Shou of the Western Jin Dynasty is from 190 to 280, that is, it records from the 2nd year of Emperor Xian of Han to the 27th year of Emperor Wu of the Later Han Dynasty), and the background of Luo Guanzhong’s novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms covers 184 to 280 (Emperor Ying of the Later Han Dynasty to Emperor Wu of the Western Jin Dynasty).

Records of the Three Kingdoms has the most records of Wei, the least of Shu Han and Eastern Wu, and the records of the founding fathers such as Guan Yu and Zhang Fei are recorded as very brief. In addition, the author of the official historical Records of the Three Kingdoms, Chen Shou of the Western Jin Dynasty, was born quite late in the Three Kingdoms period, so even for important figures such as Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, the years of birth and death or places of birth are often not properly recorded. It is said that most of the Sima clan and his subordinates, including Sima Yi, who once worked in Wei, are often included in the ā€œBook of Jinā€ and not in this book.

In particular, the episode of the Peach Garden Oath in Shu Han is commonly known as an invention of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms written by Luo Guanzhong, but it originally appeared in an episode of the ā€œPeace of the Three Kingdomsā€ written before the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and it is said that Luo Guanzhong slightly adapted some of its lines and inserted them into the novel. In other words, the Peach Garden Oath is not directly recorded in the official history Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but records that Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei actually lived like brothers can be found throughout the official history.

Since the official Romance of the Three Kingdoms belongs to the historical records, there were obvious errors discovered during the writing process, and there are also inconsistencies and historical errors in Luo Guanzhong’s Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Historians who study the Romance of the Three Kingdoms say that it is not a good idea to read the contents of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms without knowledge of the historical background and Chinese history.

Also, since the background of the Three Kingdoms begins with Emperor Xian, the 14th emperor of the Later Han Dynasty, Cao Cao was one of the lords serving Emperor Xian of the Later Han Dynasty until November 25, 220, when Cao Pi founded the Wei Dynasty. In the East, the territory governing the lord was called a ā€œvassal stateā€ and the lord there was called a ā€œvassal king.ā€

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Yeah, this was very explicitly based on the novel, and this was mentioned when they announced the DLC.

The campaign also has a wizard that summons storms, but this doesn’t do anything interesting, just gives your enemies +3 attack

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The Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a historical novel written by Luo Guanzhong, a novelist from the 14th century Yuan and Ming Dynasties, based on the historical book Romance of the Three Kingdoms written by Chen Shou of the Western Jin Dynasty. There are many historical novels like this in China. Of course, they have all disappeared.

By the way, Luo Guanzhong also wrote a work called ā€œWater Marginā€, and at that time he wrote it together with a novelist called ā€œSinai Yanā€. And surprisingly, East Asian 19+ novels first appeared during the Ming Dynasty.
A writer called So So Saeng (ē¬‘ē¬‘ē”Ÿ) wrote a secondary work based on Water Margin, which is a 19+ adult-only ā€œGolden Plumā€.

For reference, it is said that many citizens of the Ming Dynasty read the Golden Plum because it uniquely contained various depictions of social criticism in addition to the 19 forbidden themes.

You mean Romance of the Three Kingdoms (the novel) is based on Records of the Three Kingdoms (historical document)? Calling both ā€œRomanceā€ is confusing, but what I meant was the devs based the DLC on the ficticious novel.

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Name of Chen Shou book in English was Records of the Three Kingdoms, not Romance of Three Kingdoms

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Yes that’s what I meant, but the other user mentioned both by the same name so it was a bit confusing. What matters is that the DLC used Romance and not Records as a source.

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indeed. The new campaign was used the novel as the main source.
And yes, again - they stop at the Chibi.

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One more reason to move it to chronicles

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ā€œCoiled Serpent Arrayā€ has to be the most bizarre tech ever created.

Why in the world would two very different combat units provide extra HP to each other just by standing together?

I never play any civilization that has an aura boost ability because I just hate this mechanic and find it boring, but this tech is on another level entirely.

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THIS! By this itself it’s already should be in Chronicles than on Ranked. Worse the Chinese civ is still there than split into like Indians civ, so confusing.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m also chinese myself but I hope to have a better game.

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yah, when they said they wouldn’t split Chinese civ, I hoped they add those civs which around China. Not keep Chinese (which mostly based on Song) and also add Three Kingdoms

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  • The scene in question

  • Map comparing actual sizes At that time, Cao Wei of the Wei Dynasty had the largest territory. However, its territory was limited to the Liaoxi region (then Youzhou/present-day Liaohe).

For reference, just like the ā€˜Cavalry Bonus’ in the Yamato campaign of the previous work, Age of Empires 1, which reflected the theory of the existence of the Imna Japan-fu (Japan’s distortion of Korean history), this work also includes the content of China’s distortion of history (Northeastern Border History and Current Affairs Series Research Project) in the map scene at the end of the campaign after the Battle of Red Cliffs in the Liu Bei mission, which marks the entire Korean Peninsula, not the northern part (which was the Han Four Commanderies’ sphere of influence), as Wei territory. If not careful, this could easily become a political and diplomatic issue between Korea and China.

We respect Chinese and Japanese history. That is why we take these historical distortion issues very seriously. As a side note, Ensemble Studios, the former AOE production company, has been suspected of Wapahnism in the past, so we are ā€œveryā€ aware that they are very lacking in East Asian historical research (especially Japanese historical research), so we are very disappointed with this DLC historical research. That is all.

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